Luxury Problems (CD)

Andy Stott

Amoeba Review

Billy Gil, Hollywood 12/17/2012

Some records make their presence known through a few songs that stick with you, while records like Andy Stott’s Luxury Problems create a knowable yet seemingly new mood that you can recall independent of its songs. Stott’s strung-out dubstep is encanced by the enchanting voice of Alison Skidmore, Stott’s childhood piano teacher. Skidmore’s heavenly but disembodied vocal makes her sound like a drowned ghost amid Stott’s deep tones and grimy, thumping beats.

11/06/2012

UK dub techno artist Andy Stott pairs beauty and bleakness on his latest release, Luxury Problems. The female vocals that float around a track like “Numb” seem as angelic as they do struggling to stay afloat atop of one another as deep bass keeps everything submerged. That bass gets even murkier on songs like “Sleepless,” its repetition and disembodied vocal samples truly replicating an insomniac’s nightmare state.